Primacy of mind

A belief in the primacy of mind is a ubiquitous element in the history of ideas. In this view the mind or soul is not only primary as an explanation of human nature, but is the only conceivable explanation, as nothing so subtle and sublime as reason and morality could possibly emerge from matter and motion, the primary elements of scientific explanation. In his book Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995) Daniel Dennett explains that Judeo-Christian and Islamic cosmogony are established on the assumption that the genesis of all creation is dependent on the action of a "cogitative being".

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